Word.ws English Dictionary

rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic

rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic verb: to do something pointless or insignificant that will soon be overtaken by events, or that contributes nothing to the solution of a current problem.

Verb

rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic (third-person singular simple present rearranges the deck chairs on the Titanic, present participle rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic, simple past and past participle rearranged the deck chairs on the Titanic)

  1. (idiomatic) To do something pointless or insignificant that will soon be overtaken by events, or that contributes nothing to the solution of a current problem.
    • All the new people want an office close to the President's. You should see them scramble. It's like fighting for a deck chair on the Titanic.1969 January 17, Nan C. Robertson, quoting Elizabeth Carpenter, “White House Memories Recalled By Mrs. Johnson's Press Aide”, in New York Times, page 18
    • Administrators are running around straightening out deck chairs while the Titanic goes down.1972 May 15, Joseph Eger, “Listening to the Vibes”, in New York Times, page 34

Synonyms of rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic

Forms of rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic

third-person singular presentrearranges the deck chairs on the Titanic
present participlerearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic
past participlerearranged the deck chairs on the Titanic
pastrearranged the deck chairs on the Titanic

Origin of rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic

The Titanic was an ocean liner that sank on the morning of April 15, 1912 after striking an iceberg. The phrase rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic implies trying to move the chairs on the deck around while the ship is sinking, a pointless activity.

Questions about rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic

What does rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic mean?
Rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic means to do something pointless or insignificant that will soon be overtaken by events, or that contributes nothing to the solution of a current problem.
What part of speech is rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic?
Rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic is a verb.
What is the past tense of rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic?
The past tense of rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic is rearranged the deck chairs on the Titanic.

Words near rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic in the dictionary

  1. rearrange
  2. rearrange one's guts
  3. rearrange one's insides
  4. rearrange someone's face
  5. rearrange someone's guts
  6. rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic
  7. rearrangeability
  8. rearrangeable
  9. rearrangeably
  10. rearranged
  11. rearranged someone's face

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic.ogg.

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